Process for internally coating vessels suitable for containing oil and oleaginous products.



UNITED s'rA'rns PATENT OFFICE.

CARL WENZELBURGER, O1 ANTWERP, BELGIUM.

, PROCESS FOR INTERNALLY COATING VESSELS SUITABLE FOR SONTAINING- dILAlbl'fD OLEAGINOUS PRODUCTS.

No Drawing.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 30, 1912. Serial No. 674,377.

Patented Jan??? To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that L'GARL VVuNznLnUnonn, a subyect of the German Emperor,residing I at Antwerp, Belgium, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Processes for Internally Coating Vessels Suitable forContaining Oil and Oleaginous Products; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

This invention relates to a process for internally coating vessels withglue or size, particularly wooden vessels, suitable for use in exportingoils and oleaginous products and liquids, such for example as petroleum,machinery oils, edible oils, turpentine, etc.

The process is useful not only for internally coating new vessels butalso for in- I ternally coating vessels which have already been used, asit possesses considerable advantages over the methods hithertoemployednv For'the purpose of simplifying the following description,wooden casks, which are the vessels commonly employed for the purposeindicated, will only be hereinafter mentioned, but the invention isnevertheless intended to extend to the coating of other vessels whichcan be employed for the exportation and carriage of the hereinbeforementioned produ cts. I I 1 As is Well known Ioasks are sized internallyfor the purpose of filling up the pores and joints in order to preventthe oil from leaking. The processes which for this purpose are in commonuse at present only attain this object very incompletely so that lossesofoil during carriage often take place and this frequently leadsltocomplaints and unpleasant difierences betwee'n'thevender and thepurchaser which hitherto it has not been possible to avoid and-whichhave been hitherto tacitly regarded in the commcrcial circles dealing inthis class of goods as a matter of course. It has not heretofore beenpossible to obtain absolute fluid-tightness of the casks. Glue or sizehas proved to be the most suitable material for the purpose and cannotbe replaced by any other desired product, such for example as pitchwhich is employed in the brewing as well as the other purpose isnecessarily insure an efficient distribution of the glue or size overthe internal surfaces. This method was dependent upon the dexterity ofthe workman, the use of a sufficient quantity of hot glue or size, andlength of time during which the latter was kept within the casks. Theseconstitute three very indispensable factors in the success of theprocess. The superfluous glue or sizewas finally allowed to flow out ofbung holes after which the casks had to stand for a period amounting toas much as six days, according to the weather, for the purpose of dryingthe glue before they were capable of being used. In the'case of caskswhich had been previously used the process was still more tedious, assuch casks had to be steamed out, before they were coated internallywith the glue or size, for the purpose of removing the old glue or sizeand any other residues from their former contents. Since however thesteaming out operation rendered the interior of the casks damp, thesteaming process had to be followed by drying the casks in the air forfrom two to three days before the internalcoating thereof with the glueor size could be carried out. According to the coating methodspreviously employed therefore new casks require as many as six, and oldcasks as many as nine days before they are ready for use. At thesametime the internal coating of the casks with the glue or size wasexceedingly incomplete because the hot glue when poured into the-coldcasks cools too quickly and so rapidly becomes thick;

that it cannot be absorbed by the wood in" sufiicient quantity neithercan a properly uniform distribution thereof take place. The result isthat in some places the coating of glue or size is too thick while inothers it is too thin, and others again have no coating at all. Thisexplains the subsequent leakages from the cask because the cold surfacesof the wood receive, even under favorable nose one circumstances, only askin-like coating Without the glue orsise properly penetrating; into thepores, fibers and. joints of the Wood.

New in the new process according to the. present invention not only isthe time necessary for the internal coating and drying of the caslrsreduced to a minimum but the process insures that the interiors of thecasks shall receive an efiicicnt coating of glue or size which "willrender them thoroughly fluid-tight. New ca: 15, as soon as they arefinished, and used as soon as they have been steamed out and. theliquefled residues removed, are treated, W hout requiring the beforementioned d air for several days, with hot e which is introduced intothe cask for minutes at a suitably high temperature of several hundreddegrees Celsius and. under a high pressure above that of the atmosphere,amounting say to from one to two atmospheres. By this means the Woodensta'ves of the cash are thoroughly dried on their interior and thefibers, pores and are, so to speak, slightly opened by the heat andthereby favorably prepared for the ception of the glue or size. From 30to 50 (thirty to fifty) liters or thereabout of boiling glue or sizethen forced throi ;;h the bung hole into the cash and by con iiiugalforce and while still subjected to hot air at high pressure the interiorof the cash issubjected to the hot glue-or size in such a manner thatevery partof the internal surface comes into contact with the heatedgliie or size. This operation be carried out While the 02 l: ishorizontal and takes a few minutes to i lect. ln consequence of the in-vterior of the cash being Wei heated by the use of the hot air current,the hot glue Will be thbroughly absorbed by the opened layore of fiberand the pores and joints of the wood, and in consequence also of thecoating being effected by centrifugal force on der pressure the gluepenetrates more deeply into the wood and the joints than is possible bythe simple rinsing around hitherto commonly practised, That a bettercoating of the cash with the glue or size is actuan fact that theconsumption of glue or size is greater for a given size of cask, in thenew process than the old one, from which it follows that the formeryields a better and thicker layer of glue or size. The slight additionalexpense caused by the gicatercons mption of glue is amply covered by thei sell o'f'the compensations which have hitherto had to be made forleakages. The superfluous glue or size introduced into the cash asdescribed is finally allowed to llow 01st and file cask is then againtreated with hot air for the purpose oi? drying; it and still moreefficiently. forcing the layer of glue or size inlothe pores of theWood, the

y efiected is manifest from the L hot air being introduced into the caskthrough the bung hole at a high pressure above that of the atmosphere(say one and a hali to two atmospheres for example) and at a hightemperature such as ice (four hundred) degrees Celsius for example.Aiter a few minutes, (say from four to six minutes for example) thedry/111% complete and the cask is ready to be lillco with the product tobe exported.

The entire process as hereinbefore described, from. the commencement ofthe preliminary heating of the cask, including the coating of itinternally-with the glue or size, the removal of superfluous quantity ofthe latter and the drying of the cash takes barely an hour to carry outin order rem day the cash ready for use and for which similaroperations, has been hereinbefore stated, a period. of from s12: to ninedays;

has hitherto been necessary. The {line of about one hour might still beconsiderably reduced'to about a quarter of an hour, were it not for thefact of the time necessary to allow the superfluous portion the glue orsize to thoroughly drain out of the cask after being forced into it. Inthe drying of casks according to as new process any faults in themanufacture of, and any leaky places in, the caskwill at the same timebe brought to notice, because the high air pro sure immediately makesthem apparent. This is an important, even asecondary circumstance andone which increases the advantage of the new process.

The advantages of the improved process in comparison with she oldmethods of ternally coating casks with glue or size are obvious, for,apart from the more rapid manufacture and the better internal coating ofthe casks with the glue or size thereby excluding all leakages aconsiderable economy in space and room taken no in the factory duringthe carrying out of tie procsee is effected and also in the storageyards, for the reason that the finished caslrs can be immediately sentaway and special accommodstion therefor is no longer require whereasaccording to the old process a definite storage place had to be providedfor each series of cuslrs according to he longer or shorter period oftime prescribed for the treatment and storage for drying purposes, thevarious casks being specially arranged according to their time of dryingand the storage of the casks oalculal'cd for one, two days, etc.

The kind cfthe appliances employed for heating and introducing the airand the ghie or size into" the csslrs' is perfectly immaterial as as asthe out of the new process is concerned, as they will have cular localcondisoie for attaining numerous that it Ice ample there are so man waysand means of heating the air and the a pears unnecessary to describe anyparti dular constructions'of such. Thus for exdifierent possibleposition and the succession of the severaloperations, not been usedhitherto for the internal coating with glue or size and the drying outvessels suitable for the exportation of oil and the like.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the saidinvention the receptacle and finally heated dry air to the inmrior of te recepand vin what manner the same is to be per formed I declare thatwhat I claim is The herein described process of coating receptaclesconsisting in forcing hot dry' air under high pressure into thereceptacles to absorb the moisture and open the pores of the material,then introducing an overcharge of hot size in the receptacle andcentrifugally distributing the hot size'with hot air under pressure tothe walls of the receptacle, then draining the su lus size from orcinhighly tacle to dry the size.

Dated this 10 day of January 1912.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of.

two subscribin witnesses. 1

C RL WENZELBURGER. Witnesses:

KARL Gon'rzn,

G. DE LERKY.

